Watch the transit of Venus from your desktop

If you want to catch this year’s transit of Venus without damaging your retinas, several sites will bring the astronomical event to your screen of choice.

For sky watchers, the transit is a big deal — it happens when the planet Venus passes directly between the earth and sun. And, that doesn’t happen that often. The spectacle comes in pairs that occur eight years apart about once a century. The last one was in 2004, there will be one today, and the next set will kick off in 2117. So catch it now or else.

Advertisement

Given clear skies, the show should start Tuesday June 5 at 6:04 EDT tonight and last six hours.The event will be carried live here and here.